Statistical averages

Overall

Fully evolved

Battle properties

Generation I

Offensive

Defensive

Power

Types

Power

Types

2×

½×

½×

2×

0×

None

0×

None

Generation II-onwards

Offensive

Defensive

Power

Types

Power

Types

2×

½×

½×

2×

0×

None

0×

None

Characteristics

Defense

The Fire-type has its pros and cons defensively. Ground, Rock, and Water moves are all very common, while most of the Fire type's resistances are of little use. Most Fire-type Pokémon will not survive too long in battle; they must deal damage quickly in order to earn their slot on a team. This reflects the nature of fire being a glass cannon; a very destructive force yet at the same time being very fragile. The biggest flaw Fire types have is that all Fire-type Pokémon are weak to Water, with the exception of the legendary PokémonReshiram, which is a dual Dragon/Fire type.

However, not only does the Fire type have five resistances, among them being a key resistance to the powerful Ice, but it is also immune to burns, making Pokémon of this type key physical sweepers. Also, most Fire-types can at least learn SolarBeam to counter all three of the type's weaknesses.

Offense

Offensively, Fire is very powerful. The ability to deal super-effective damage to Steel-type Pokémon is very useful for Pokémon that specialize in special moves, as many Steel-type Pokémon typically have high Defense but a low Special Defense and would suffer with any special moves thrown at them. Also, Fire-type moves are generally powerful, with around half of its damaging moves having 100 or more for power and 17 out of 27 having 80 or more. While Fire is resisted by four types, two types are hindered by their own bad Special Defenses and relative scarcity therefore keeping their moves rather valuable. Although Fire types often have below average defensive stats, they often have high Speed and Attack stats, making them great offensive Pokémon.

Fire is super effective against four types, tying it in amount with Ice and Rock. However, double weaknesses to Ice and Rock are slightly more common, and Ground and Fighting hit even more types super-effectively. Despite this, Fire is unique in that it is the only type that can cause 5× times damage, due to the combination of Paras's evolutionary family's double weakness and the Ability Dry Skin. Fire types also possess higher offensive stats compared to Ice and Rock types. Many Fire types can now learn Grass moves, which can make double resistances to Fire useless (in this case, Water/Rock types, who are doubly weak to Grass).

Contest properties

When used in Contests, Fire-type moves typically become Beauty moves, but some may be Tough or Smart moves.

Pokémon

As of Generation V, there are 48 Fire-type Pokémon or 7.40% of all Pokémon, making it the ninth most common type.

Trivia

In the Hoenn region games, Fire-type moves could be used underwater, with no damage reduction unlike in the rain, and Fire types like Charmander were able to battle underwater, even though its Pokédex entries point out that it will die if its flame goes out.

The three types that Fire is weak to (Ground, Rock, and Water) all share a weakness to Grass-type attacks.

Up until Generation V, every Fire-type starter family had at least one member whose English name begins with a C.

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl have been criticized for the relative lack of Fire-type Pokémon in the Sinnoh Pokédex (the Chimchar and Ponyta lines being the only ones), which became apparent when Flint's team only had two Fire types (the finalforms of those two lines). This was changed in Platinum with the expansion of the Sinnoh Pokédex to include the Houndour, Magmar, and Eevee families.

Also, the Cool condition uses the same shade of orange in its status screen icon as the Fire type's icon does, despite being described as red in-text. However, no Fire-type moves are Cool moves.

Fire is the only starter type where its respective starter Pokémon lines have not been of the same color category each generation. The Charmander, Torchic, and Tepig lines are in the Red color category, however the Cyndaquil line is in the Yellow color category, and the Chimchar line is in the Brown color category.

Generation III is the only generation not to have introduced at least one Fire-type legendary Pokémon.

Fire is unique in that it is the only type able to deal more than double super effective damage. This is possible due to the Paras family's double weakness to fire paired with their Ability, Dry Skin, which multiplies fire damage by 1.25, effectively making them take quintuple damage from Fire moves.

Generation V introduced the most Fire-type Pokémon of any Generation, with 15 and Generation IV introduced the least Fire-type Pokémon, with five.

Fire types are much rarer in colder regions than in warmer ones, as proven with Hoenn and Sinnoh's Pokédex listings, which have the most and the least Fire types respectively.